The Two-Way

2:33 pm

Tue August 14, 2012

British Bank Agrees To $340 Million Settlement Over Laundering Charges

Britain's fifth-largest bank has agreed to pay $340 million to settle charges by New York regulators that it laundered money for Iranian clients.

NPR's Chris Arnold filed this report for our Newscast unit:

"In court documents, the regulator alleged that for 10 years Standard Chartered Bank quote 'schemed with the Government of Iran and hid from regulators roughly 60,000 secret transactions... involving $250 billion dollars and reaping hundreds of millions of dollars in fees for the bank.'

"The money flowed through the New York branch of the British bank. Under U.S. law, any money transfers coming from the Iranian banks involved must be subjected to regulatory scrutiny. Some transactions can be rejected for security reasons. So the British bank allegedly falsified documents to hide the source of the money.

"Now, that the New York's superintendent of Financial Services Benjamin Lawsky has reached a settlement the British bank will install a monitor."

The New York Times reports that this is a big win for New York's Department of Financial Services, which was just formed last year.

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